Noob building a 2.4

[Engwe]

Hi, I’m looking to build a formbot 350mm kit, along with some upgrades but I’m feeling pretty overwhelmed. I’ve repaired several prusas and resin printers but never built a printer out of box. I feel confident that I can follow the instructions, but I am not sure if the upgrades from outside of the kit will be compatible. The biggest reason why I have held off from buying a voron kit last year is because I hate ordering something, realize I’m missing something, order more and repeat until I’m sick of it, over budget and still waiting for more pets to arrive.

I’ll list the ones I want below, but please lead me towards better options or upgrades that I should include anyways:

•Bigtreetech CANBus (not sure which one)

•input shaper (ignore this one, I think the kit includes one)

•FYSEC TAP + rail

•SIBOOR generic interior LEDs

Edited January 11 by Engwe

[mvdveer]

Welcome to the forum. Canbus can be a bit tricky but can be incorporated in the initial build. That will eliminate both the X and Y-axis cable chains. Most canbus toolhead boards come with built in accelerometers for input shaping.  The Tap conversion is reasonable straightforward when incorporated in the initial build as long as you get the CNC version (The best in my humble opinion is the chaotic labs tap v2.)

I would look at the Beefy front idlers and would probable advise to stop at those. You can always add any mods later.

[PFarm]

Welcome to the forum, great advice from @mvdveer, if you've repaired printers before then building one shouldn't be an issue. I'd suggest a build diary so we can follow along and help with any issues that come up during the build. Some great friendly knowledgeable people here ready to help. Formbot makes a great kit at a reasonable price! For a Canbus board, I'd recommend the BTT SB2209 rp2040 which has the larger JST connectors. As previously mentioned Canbus and be a little tricky for a first-time start-up some consider the best practice is to install the tool head with the kit wiring and once everything is working mod it to Canbus.

Edited January 11 by PFarm

[Dirk]

Hi, welcome to the forum

If you hate ordering extra's, I would only build the kit you have, have it working completely, then add a mod here or there. It will make it much easier to complete the job and have a working printer. Be sure to check out the builds-logs / showing offs from @Buurman he has built more than 50 formbot V2.4 kits.

However, if you can do things, like repair printers, look for the 'mods' you want, and order them along. It will cost you a lot more figuring out, because you are not following the manual, but it is doable.

If you are going to build with 'mods' from the ground up, I would do a quick search on the forum. There are several 'recommended' mods like the beefy idlers or the Ramalalama front idlers, Pins mods for all idlers, 270 hinges, self locking clips and so on. These threads are quite recent, so I will not sum them up

CAN is 'tricky' because it is quite new and it causes you to figure out everything into the latest detail.

Finally, instead of the TAP, I would consider purchasing a Cartographer probe, which is also new, but has the options for CAN and USB connection in the same board. You can also get the cnc-mount that goes with it. 

Good luck!

 

Edited January 11 by Dirk

[claudermilk]

Welcome to the forum!

You will totally be able to handle the Voron build. I went from building a Prusa Mini kit to a self-sourced Trident with zero 3d printer experience prior to that. As per the usual advice, build to stock first then mod. I built pretty much to stock specs and added all my mods later. Yes, there was some disassembly and reassembly, but it was all in bite-sized chunks.

Canbus is still really tricky--look at all the help & troubleshooting threads here & other places; I'm still staying well clear of it myself. Tap isn't all that hard to do, no more so than Klicky probe was--but it can also be easily added later.

Definitely do a build diary so we can all follow along and provide assistance if needed.

[mvdveer]

8 hours ago, Dirk said:

Finally, instead of the TAP, I would consider purchasing a Cartographer probe,

If you do decide to go down this route, then save yourself a lot of hassles by getting the CNC mounts for these probes. I just ordered myself some as I am in the process of converting all my TAP probes to Beacon (Others similar: Cartographer, IDM probe) Have the beacon probe on my VZBot and it is FANTASTIC. You can also get the mount with the probe as a combo deal. Prices in the links are AUD, so about half that in USD or Euro. 

The only downside with beacon is that there is no canbus version, nor will there be according to their discord channel.